


Out of the Woods

by BadAtPennames



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Crack, M/M, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-18
Updated: 2016-05-18
Packaged: 2018-06-09 04:20:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6889729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadAtPennames/pseuds/BadAtPennames
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Levi gets stranded beyond the walls, he comes across something he never expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out of the Woods

**Author's Note:**

> Despite what it seems like at first, I consider this fic to be entirely crack. Although, it's probably funnier to me than to anyone else.

Levi grit his teeth when the titan took off as soon as the hooks from his gear sank into its flesh.  Normally they hardly reacted and he briefly recalled one of Hange’s theories of varying sensitivities for pain.  He tried to retract the wire so he could swing higher up to the neck, but when all it did was jerk and make an odd clunky, grinding sound, he swore violently. 

He could still let the line out more, so he eased open the catch to plunge down, absently noting the above average speed of the titan and considered that it might be partially abnormal.  There never seemed to be a clear definition of where the line between normal and abnormal was.

That was Hange’s department anyway.

As he dropped, he shot the other wire out, satisfied that at least his gear wasn’t completely garbage.  His feet tapped down on the titan’s lower back, just below where the faulty hook was lodged.   He grabbed the wire near the head of the grapple to steady himself as he retracted the good wire, glanced up and shot it into the back of the titan’s head.

Once the functioning wire was secured, he coiled the wire from the malfunctioning side as quickly and neatly as he could around one arm before slicing the hook free.  He pressed the trigger to retract the functional line, flying up away from the blast of steam that erupted from the rather sizable wound he had created.

As he launched towards the titan’s head, the large chunk of its flesh dissolved around the broken side’s hook.  By the time he flipped his body and his feet touched the base of the titan’s skull, upside down, the hook was nearly clean.  A lightning quick strike and the titan was falling face first towards the ground, no longer capable of regenerating as the slice from the back of its neck flew off.  Levi braced himself and rode it down as it collapsed.

With the impact, he was retracting the good hook and leaping free.

A quick survey of his surroundings revealed the edge of a thick forest close by on his right and open fields spotted intermittently with trees towards his left.

The rest of the Survey Corps was nowhere to be seen.

He had ridden to meet the titan away from the main force as it was, Erwin’s strict instructions that no titan come anywhere near the supply cart’s cargo.  Even he hadn’t known what they were transporting, but then again, he hadn’t cared to ask. 

In a vain attempt, he tried to whistle for his horse, but was already heading towards the tree line, knowing that as long as he was out in the open with partially functioning gear he was as good as dead.

He had a few flares left: a black, two reds, and two greens.  He fired off a green one, not knowing if anyone was close by enough to see it.  If no one was then he didn’t have much hope of Erwin sending out a squad after him when to do so would only risk more soldiers and the commander had no guarantee that Levi had survived.

Erwin was not a sentimental man, but a pragmatic one.

He wrapped the section of wire that wouldn’t retract around his waist, tucking the hook into his belt.  He wasn’t sure if it was something he could fix yet or not, but he had to make sure he was somewhere relatively safe before he was willing to remove it so he could see.

When he reached the first young trees he saw how thick the undergrowth was and skirted along for about twenty meters until he found a spot where it thinned out in a narrow gap.  None of the trees closest to him were large enough to support his weight if he wanted to use his gear to get up high.

The gap looked like an animal trail that widened a little once he made it past the newest growth, but the trees and plants were still young and grew close together.  His blades were repurposed as machetes and he hacked away until he reached a point he could walk freely.

He wasn’t too far into the forest, still close enough to the edge where he felt he should be able to hear the sounds of horses if anyone came.

Levi looked up at the trees above him and judged that a few of them were tall enough and had branches that should be able to support his weight high up for him to try and get a better view of the terrain.

He searched for a branch he could aim for with a relatively clear path between him and it.  It took a minute, but he found one. He shot up into the tree, adjusting to the pull on only one side of his body, kicking the trunk when he got too close and landing on the branch with a soft tap.  He could see out above the younger trees, but failed to find any Survey Corps members on the horizon.

He waited for an hour before he gave up the last of his hope and tried not to wonder how many days he would manage to survive out here with busted gear.

If he were to have any chance of defending against a titan that showed itself, he would have to move further into the forest where the trees were larger and grew further apart so he could properly maneuver between them.  With only one working wire, he’d need more room than usual since he wouldn't be able to correct his flight path easily.  Where he was currently a titan could easily knock down most of the trees limiting his escape options.

Huffing out an irritated sigh, he returned to the ground and followed the animal trail deeper in. 

It was probably two hours later by his estimation when he felt the ground shake beneath him. 

Why wouldn’t a titan would appear when he was halfway across a meadow in the middle of the woods, away from cover?  Of course it would be when he was in the least advantageous terrain he could be in.  He was kicking himself for not keeping to the edge and walking around when the meadow appeared.  He had seen hoof prints lead into it though, and a small damnable part of him had dared to hope.

This was what he got for having hope: death by man-eating giant.  A small, very negative part of him swore he would never have hope again… since he’d be dead.

The titan stumbled into the clearing to his right.  It was maybe ten meters tall and looked like it was smiling when its eyes landed on Levi.

“At least one of us is having a good day,” he said, drawing his blades as it began an uneven sprint towards him.  He bent his knees, thighs tensing as it came within range, filthy hand reaching out for him. 

He shot the working wire up into the titan’s jaw, which was conveniently aligned with its arm so he could slice it off as he was pulled up.  The titan took its eyes off Levi to look at the smoking stump at the end of its shoulder.  It appeared confused.

“Looking for your arm?  Sorry, but it was in my way,” Levi said as the momentum of his swing allowed him to move up past the gigantic jaw by releasing the catch as he passed, retract the wire, and aim it at the juncture of its shoulder and neck.  He waited until he stopped travelling upwards and gravity began to pull him back down before he pulled the trigger that sent him flying towards the titan.  The back of its neck was gone in a flash.

When Levi’s boots hit the ground again he re-sheathed his blades.

A sudden clap behind him made him freeze.  A second had him spinning around, eyes wide, and then he immediately lost count of how many claps followed as his brain shorted out at the sight before him. 

The titan had moved him close to the edge of the trees and there, half hidden by a fallen trunk and ferns was a handsome, shirtless young man, giving Levi the widest, most entertained smile he had ever seen.  That included Hange.

“Wow, that was amazing!  You took him down like it was nothing!” the boy laughed.

Levi felt like he should say something, but his brain had melted and most likely flowed out of his ears. 

“What’s your name?” the kid asked, or maybe he was a man, Levi was terrible at guessing ages.

That was an easy question, easy… his name… shit.

He found himself walking towards the boy, trying to come up with some sort of explanation as to why some random kid was walking around without a shirt outside the walls.

There were several he came up with: he was dead, he had hit his head and was hallucinating, the stress of being stranded outside the walls had caused him to have a psychotic break…

Levi stopped about five paces away when his brain started to reform.

“Levi.  My name’s Levi.” He felt inordinately proud for some reason that he was able to not only recall this information, but also verbally relay it.

“Hi, I’m Eren.  What are you doing out here?” he asked, conversationally.

Levi balked at the enquiry.  Were questions normally so hard? 

To be fair, Eren’s query was completely reasonable.  After all, hadn’t he just been wondering the same thing about the kid?

“I got stranded.  Why are you here?” 

“I live here.”  It was stated so matter-of-factly that Levi almost found it believable.

“How?”

“What do you mean how?  I just live here,” Eren said, furrowing his brows over perplexed eyes. 

Levi’s head was hurting for real now.

“With titans roaming around?” the disbelief was clear in his voice.

Eren smirked, “They’re not interested in us.”

Us?

“There are more of you?”

“Well, yeah.  You didn’t think I was the only one out here, did you?”

“I didn’t think anyone was out here.”

Eren laughed and began to move out away from the tree trunk and ferns covering up his lower half.  Levi heard what sounded like a suspicious amount of shuffling and familiar noises that seemed out of place.  When Eren came fully out into the open, Levi stepped back, eyes wide, and suavely fell onto his ass.

“What…?”  There were no more words coming into his mind to finish the sentence.

Eren didn’t have legs like Levi. 

Below his waist was the body of a horse.

The boy cocked his head to the side and looked down at Levi.

“Are you all right?”

“No.”

Fuck titans, this was the weirdest shit he had ever seen.  At least he could name those noises he heard: soft hoof beats.

“Maybe you should come back with me then.”

He found himself nodding.  He had forgotten his own name again.

With a concerned look, Eren reached down and effortlessly pulled the scout to his feet like he was a child.

“Can you walk?”

Levi nodded.

He actually wasn’t sure he could walk, he could barely process the question, but he experimentally tried placing one foot in front of the other and didn’t fall, so that was promising.

“C’mon, then,” Eren said and turned, his ridiculous horse body swinging out widely behind him.  Levi wordlessly followed.

He was led along another trail, he wasn’t sure for how long, but his mental faculties slowly returned to him.

Along the way Eren wasn’t particularly chatty, focusing more on their destination and occasionally sending a concerned look over his shoulder.

“You doing okay?”

The honest answer was a resounding ‘No’, but Levi just shrugged.

“We’re almost there, another couple of minutes.”

When they came through another parting of the trees Levi saw a large, overgrown rock wall sitting atop a cliff.  A slope of land led up to it, the sheer face of a cliff rising up one side and a vertical drop on the other.  Eren led them up that path towards the wall.  At the top was a wide opening where one side of a rusted gate was swung open, the other missing.  They passed under the archway and Levi's eyes widened.  They were in a large courtyard of a crumbling castle at the far end that looked similar in design to the Survey Corps headquarters and there were stables lined up along its side that were in immaculate condition.

Also, there were more horse people like Eren.

A small blonde pony-girl was the first to notice them and she stared openly at Levi.  She was quickly joined by a large, uncomfortably muscular Clydesdale-man with short cropped blond hair.

“Eren, who is that?” the male asked.

“This is Levi.  Levi, this is Reiner and Annie.”

Levi inclined his head towards them, but talking was a skill he was going to struggle with today.

“Where did you find a human?” Annie spoke carefully, as if saying the wrong word would cause the universe to implode.

“At the meadow.  He was fighting a titan.”

Now both Reiner’s and Annie’s stares were pinned on Levi like they were trying to dissect him with their eyes.

“You fought a titan?  Don’t they eat you guys?” Reiner asked, sounding impressed.

“Yes,” Levi nodded.

“Anyway, have either of you seen my dad?  I brought Levi here to see him.”

“He’s back at the barn.” Annie pointed to somewhere presumably behind the castle.

“Thanks,” Eren said and began to clip clop off, gesturing for Levi to follow.

Levi quickly drew even with Eren’s torso, finding the full view of the horse body as he walked behind it too weird.  The human portion of Eren was easier to deal with, even if he was shirtless.  Very toned, and very shirtless.

He kept his eyes strictly forward.

Eren led them between the castle and stables to the back of the decrepit building.  There, a large outer building that looked decidedly newer and less likely to fall over in a strong breeze than the castle, stood.  Its entrance consisted of large double doors, one of which was currently propped open.  Eren led Levi there.

“Dad?” he called out next to Levi as they passed the threshold.

Levi peered into the darker interior.  It looked like Hange’s lab: workbenches littered with flasks and vials, random bits of machinery hanging from the walls or resting on the floor, an entire shelved wall filled with books.

The front room they had entered had a long, gently sloped ramp running half the building into a second story.  Levi was peering up there when a soft clacking of hooves from the doorway at the end of the room which was wider and taller than what Levi was accustomed to, redirected his attention.

“Eren… who is this?” A lean, bespectacled horse-man asked, looking every bit as surprised as everyone else had so far.  Somehow it was the glasses at this point that seemed the most ridiculous to Levi.  He wondered if he was experiencing a kind of delayed shock.

“This is Levi, I found him fighting a titan, I think you should take a look at him.”

“A human fighting a titan?”

“Yeah, he took it down by himself, using this thing!” Eren said, excitedly pointing to Levi’s 3DM gear.

The older horse-man eyed Levi critically.

“Humans are attempting to take back the lands from the titans.” It didn’t sound like a question.

“Essentially,” Levi agreed, anyway.

“I didn’t realize your race had become suicidal.”

“Just some of us.”

The man let a barely-there smile flit onto his face before just as suddenly disappearing.

“I’m Grisha Jaeger, Eren’s father.”

“Levi Ackerman.”

Grisha clip-clopped over to get a closer look at Levi.  His eyes fell to the 3DM gear.

“May I?”

“It’s broken,” Levi said as he began to unwind the wire that didn’t retract from around his waist.

“What’s broken?” A loud female voice asked behind him, and Levi nearly jumped out of his skin.  He spun around to see a dark haired horse-girl eyeing him up.

“My gear.” Levi answered dumbly.

She sauntered up and leaned an arm on Eren’s shoulder, who looked annoyed by it.

“So you’re Eren’s human, eh?  I’m Ymir.”

“Levi.”

_Eren’s human?_

He glanced over at the young man in question, but Eren was too busy giving Ymir a very unamused expression.

“Word travels fast,” Grisha muttered before gesturing to Levi to continue removing his broken gear.  The human complied, quickly unfastening it from his harness. 

Grisha cantered over to a large work table near one of the walls and began clearing it off of items, waving Levi over.

The captain placed his gear on the vacant space and began explaining basic functions at Grisha’s prompts.  Now that he had a moment, he could inspect it.  He began to turn it over, running his fingers along the wire to where it was supposed to retract, tugging lightly to see if there was any give.

A double set of hooves behind him informed him that Ymir and Eren were curious, too.

“So the wire won’t go back?” Ymir asked.

“Yeah.”

“I’ll see what I can do!” Ymir said, sweeping the broken gear up and clip-clopping out the room to the further recesses of the barn before anyone could react.

Grisha looked pained.

“Dad, you should check him out,” Eren said, then turned to Levi, “he’s a doctor.”

Grisha seemed to come back to himself as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

“Are you injured?”

Eren gave Levi an intensely concerned look.

“Shocked.  I didn’t know there were… horse-people,” Levi gestured vaguely at them.

“Ah,” Grisha said, “Eren, wait outside.  I’m going to talk with Mr. Ackerman.”

Eren looked like he wanted to argue, but then glanced at Levi again and held himself back.

“Fine, but I’ll be right outside the door.”

Eren made his way outside, and Grisha turned back to Levi.

“Centaurs.  We call ourselves centaurs.”

“Oh.”

“There’s a chair over there, I’ll get you some water.”

Levi took the order for what it was, and sat.  As soon as he was off his feet, exhaustion hit and he slumped down against the back of the seat.  He wasn’t sure how far from the walls he was or if he could get back, but he was in a village of hors… centaurs and he really couldn’t think of anything beyond that.

Grisha returned with a ceramic cup of water and thrust it into Levi’s hands.

“It’s been over a hundred years since anyone’s seen a human.  We’re just as shocked as you are.”

Levi very much doubted that.  They at least, were aware of the _existence_ of humans.

The captain took a slow drink from his cup.

“You’re quite far from whatever settlement you came from.  I’m surprised you made it all the way out here without been eaten.”

“I was part of an expedition,” Levi explained.

“Fascinating,” Grisha replied, pushing his glasses up.  Something occurred to Levi, and it seemed so odd for him to notice since everything else around him was significantly stranger.

“Why do you have a chair around here, if none of you can use it?”

“Ah, well its Eren’s, he…”

Several loud clangs interrupted Grisha from further back in the workshop followed by a soft hiss.

A moment later Ymir returned with a mangled hunk of metal and wires.

Levi’s face paled.

“Is that my gear?”

“Ymir…” Grisha said in a tone that was as resigned as it was disapproving.

“It was jammed but I got that wire loose.  It slides right out now,” she said, demonstrating with a yank on the previously stuck wire.  It slid out like a snake, and kept sliding until the entire coil fell to the ground, no longer attached to the gear in any way.

“Did you just pound on it with a hammer?” Levi asked, his voice sounding very distant to his own ears as he stared at the wire on the floor.

Ymir didn’t act as though she heard him.  “The other side is kind of stuck now, but I can probably get that out, too.”

Levi didn’t say anything, he couldn’t.  His eyes were glued to the coil on the floor.

This feeling.  This was what people felt when they wanted to cry.

 “Thank you, Ymir, but I think that’ll be enough for now,” Grisha said after a moment.

“Not a problem!  See you around, human.”  With that, she cantered out of the barn.

Grisha awkwardly cleared his throat after she left and kicked the wire away with a hoof until it slid out of sight beneath a workbench.

“I suppose we should see about finding you a place to sleep for the night.  My guess is that you’ll be staying with us for a while.”

-

Levi found himself in the upper floor of the barn, tucked into a pile of fresh straw with an old wool blanket thrown across himself.  He was exhausted, but the last thing he thought he’d be able to do was fall asleep.

He found himself staring up at the darkened ceiling, arm folded up beneath his head.

There were too many thoughts weaving through his mind, circling like a whirlpool.  The centaurs weren’t something he needed to understand, just accept.  Titans apparently didn’t eat them.  Titans did eat humans, however, and Levi was very human.

Which begged the question, was he actually safe here?

Would titans pick up on his scent, or however it was that they always managed to suss out humans? 

Would a titan come stumbling into the courtyard tomorrow, looking for him?

For all he knew, he was endangering his hosts merely with his presence.

The soft clip clop of hooves up the ramp shook him out of his dismal thoughts.  He turned his face to see a soft yellow glow ascend up the wall before Eren’s head was revealed.  As he reached to top, Levi could see the centaur was carrying a lantern.

Eren made his way over to him.

“Hey, you awake?”

“Yeah.”

“I figured you would be.  I brought you some tea.”

Levi couldn’t help the way his eyes flashed at the words, glancing towards Eren’s other hand, which indeed held a steaming cup of what was presumably the aforementioned tea.  He knew he had liked the boy.

Levi sat up as Eren set the lantern down on a nearby table before bending down to carefully transfer the cup to Levi’s hands.

“Thank you,” Levi murmured, sniffing delicately at the liquid.

“It’s chamomile,” Eren said as he began the laborious process of tucking his forelegs under himself as his hind legs bent.  Levi watched, thankful it wasn’t the larger Reiner trying to maneuver in the somewhat cramped space.

“I hope I’m not bothering you,” Eren said once he was settled.

“I wasn’t sleeping anyway.”

“I guess you have a lot on your mind.”

Levi nodded, taking a sip of the tea before setting it down next to him and glancing up at the centaur.

Eren looked incredibly soft in the candlelight when he gave Levi that vaguely concerned look.

“So humans forgot about centaurs, huh?”

“You’re not common knowledge, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Eren gave an odd twitch as he turned his head to stare into the gloom of the rest of the room.

“You’re the first real human I’ve seen.  I thought you’d be taller.”

Levi felt his face do something that was probably unattractive before he answered.

“Most are.  Taller that is.”

Eren looked back at him. “Yeah?”

Levi shrugged and took another sip of tea.

“I heard about what Ymir did to your wire-thing.”

“3-D maneuver gear,” Levi supplied.

“Yeah.  You used that to fight the titans.  I bet that’s you’re only way of escaping them.”

“If you’re here to cheer me up, you’re doing a terrible job of it.”

“Oh, sorry!” Eren said with a short laugh, actually looking vaguely embarrassed. “You shouldn’t be too down.  We’ll get you back home, once we figure out where it is and all.”

Levi looked hard at Eren, saw honest sincerity in those determined eyes and a blindingly confident smile that was spread across the boy’s face.

For a moment, Levi was struck by how attractive Eren was, soft looking hair, green eyes, tanned skin, strong shoulders, defined chest, horse body… shit, horse body!

Levi ripped his eyes away, back up to Eren’s face, mind twitching and disturbed.

He fought the shudder that wanted to tear through him.

Levi took a deeper breath that hopefully wasn’t too noticeable.   

The human half of Eren was attractive.  That he could admit.  Unfortunately, that half was attached to the body of a horse and Levi had never been into that kind of thing.

“Do you mind if I stay here tonight?  Honestly, I’m kind of worried about leaving a human alone considering there are titans running around.”

Levi blinked at him stupidly.  The last time someone had worried about him, thought he needed protection was… longer ago than he cared to remember.  It was an odd sensation and he wasn’t entirely sure whether or not he liked it.

If he was truthful with himself, the thought of being alone in titan territory was not a pleasant one and Eren’s company did settle his frayed nerves a bit.

“Knock yourself out.”

-

The next morning, Levi woke to the sound of Eren awkwardly gaining his feet.  He had found himself reaching for blades that weren’t at his hips before he realized there wasn’t any danger.

“Oh sorry, did I wake you?”

“It’s fine,” Levi mumbled, sitting up and trying to clear the sleep from his eyes.

“C’mon, let’s go get some breakfast,” Eren said before reaching down and pulling Levi up before the scout was even ready to try standing.

He nearly fell over but the next moment Eren was leading him down the ramp presumably to a meal.  They were halfway across the courtyard when Levi realized he was looking at something very odd.

Reiner, the Clydesdale centaur from yesterday was apparently engaged in a morning workout.

Of pushups.

He watched as the blond centaur had his human hands firmly on the ground, horse forelegs tucked up against his horse body, and hind legs doing an awkward job of supporting him in the back.  It wasn’t the smooth up and down of human pushups, but rather a jilted rocking due to the length of his hind legs.  His human arms were too short for it to look natural and the chest of his horse body kept scraping the ground as he moved his arms. 

Levi couldn’t look away.

It was like the worst kind of wreck where you wanted to banish the image from your vision, but something dark, deep inside bade you to continue watching.

“Hey, are you ok?” Eren asked, having stopped when he noticed Levi was no longer following. 

It was enough to shake him back into his senses.

“Yes, I’m…” he trailed off, wrenching his head forward and walking, telling himself not to look back.

Eren looked at him worriedly, but didn’t say anything as he led him towards the stables.

Breakfast was, thankfully, food that he recognized.  Oatmeal with a side of berries, likely plucked from the bushes growing along the outer wall of the grounds.

Eren ate with him, off along the outer wall of the stables, enjoying the quiet of the morning.

Levi was starting to grow used to the fact that Eren was always shirtless.  He hardly ogled him at all.  Only a little bit.

At least the upper part anyway, he was still coming to terms with the fact that the lower part even existed.

“My dad wanted to go over some old maps with you to see if we can’t figure out where your home is.  I assume you live someplace where the titans can’t eat you?”

“We have some walls we live in.”

“You live inside a wall?” Eren asked, face incredulous.

It was too early for this.

“No, the walls enclose our lands, keep the titans out.”

“Ah, that makes a lot more sense.”

Of course it did, since the first scenario made absolutely no sense.

“Well, don’t worry.  If we can get you back, we will,” Eren said, smiling brightly and with all the charm and confidence that pierced Levi right in the heart.  The centaur’s face was so good looking in that moment, it was hard for the captain to think about anything else.

He was young though, and somehow that made Levi more uncomfortable than the centaur part, which probably meant he needed to go back to bed and get some more sleep.

Eren was younger than Levi at any rate, assuming centaurs aged similarly to humans, so he could be later teens to early twenties. 

Maybe they aged closer to horses.

How did horses age?

Twenty years was a long time for a horse to be alive, so maybe Eren was about six or seven years old. 

Levi blanched.  Maybe centaurs aged entirely differently than either horses or humans and Levi wasn’t going to think about it anymore.

His head was hurting again.

-

That afternoon, Levi and Grisha had looked at more old maps and partial maps than Levi had ever seen in his entire life.

“What are these M’s over here?”

“Mountains.  Did you cross any mountains to get here?”

“No, we were attempting to set up a supply route so we could explore further out.  We were late into our second day when I got hooked on a titan.”

Grisha shuffled some sheets around.

“So you can’t be too far out.  How long do you think you were on that titan and what would you estimate its speed was?  Was its direction constant?”

Levi had no answer to any of those questions as he had been more preoccupied with the general task of not dying.

The expression on his face must have said enough because Grisha tried a different approach.

“Are there any landmarks that seem familiar?  Any rivers or lakes you may have crossed or that might be near to your home?”

Levi looked over the maps again. 

Mostly they travelled through wooded areas or close to them, doing their best to avoid wide open plains.

“There’s rivers that run through the walls and cross in the very center.  We typically leave through the south, following the path of the river out.”

“So you’re mostly likely somewhere north of us, maybe a little to the east or west.”

Grisha slid a few of the maps off to the side.  He pulled a couple more closer to him, eyes running over the papers.  “So we’re looking for rivers…”

The bespectacled centaur leaned down, his fist coming up to prop his chin up.  He let his eyes sweep over the maps quickly, pushing one away before pulling it back when the door to the workshop flew open with a loud bang.

Startled, Grisha and Levi both looked towards the source of the commotion.

A new centaur stood there, eyes blazing from behind glasses as he glared first at Grisha, then at Levi.

“I didn’t want to believe it…”

“Zeke,” Grisha spoke in surprise, “I didn’t think you were going to be back for a couple more days.”

“I wasn’t, but I see that I came back exactly when I should have.  Tell me, Grisha, where did this human come from?”

The newcomer did not seem particularly pleased to see Levi, to put it lightly.

“That’s exactly what we’re trying to figure out,” Grisha responded as if he were commenting on the weather, impervious to the other centaur’s ire.

“Well he couldn’t have just fallen from the sky.  Tell me, human, why did you come here?” The other centaur clip clopped menacingly forward.

“It wasn’t intentional.”

“You’re trying to tell me you just wandered across titan-infested territory to show up at our front door?” Zeke asked in a low voice, daring Levi to argue.

“It’s hardly his fault he’s here.  Eren found him in the forest.  We’re trying to get him back home,” Grisha butted in mildly.

Zeke swung around to the other centaur, eyes narrowed.

“You just can’t help yourself, can you?  Always meddling with them.  First your son, and now this!”

“Perhaps it would be best if you stepped out for a moment,” Grisha said as he leaned over to Levi quietly.

Levi wasn’t going to dispute it, being a guest that was very much at the mercy of his hosts didn’t allow for him to express too many strong opinions.  Without a word, he slipped past the angry centaur and exited the workshop.

He had barely left when Eren trotted up, wide-eyed and looking vaguely alarmed.

“Did you meet Zeke?”

“I guess.”

“Sorry about that.  He doesn’t care much for humans.”

“I gathered.”

“C’mon, let’s get out of sight for a while,” Eren said, grabbing his arm and gently pulling him along.  Levi raised a brow at how Eren seemed to think it was perfectly acceptable to always be grabbing him and tugging him around like he was some sort of doll.

The captain found himself drug back behind the castle and along the stone wall until they came to a place where the stones had crumbled slightly leaving a dip in the perimeter.

Eren cantered back a little, eyeing the low section and took a running start.  Levi watched as Eren jumped the section of wall, sailing over and landing gracefully on the other side.  He turned back to watch Levi.

Realizing he was meant to follow, Levi quickly scrambled over the edge and trailed after Eren as they entered the forest.

“I like this place, we’re actually near a cliff edge if you go a little further out to either side, so there’s no titans out this way.  They’d have to come through our courtyard to get here.”

That soothed Levi’s nerves more than he’d care to admit.

“Do titans ever wander into your courtyard?”

“It’s only ever happened twice that I’ve been aware of.  I was real little the first time, so I don’t remember it, but apparently it made a real mess of everything, stomping around and breaking stuff until they killed it.”

“And the second?”

“We took it down before it could cause any real harm.  They ignore us, so it’s actually really easy to do.  Of course, only the smaller ones can actually make it up the path.  I think this castle was originally designed so that you could get about one cart at a time up.  The big ones would never be able to shamble up unless they suddenly gained some motor skills.”

“How did you manage to kill them?”

“We have to trip them.  They’re a nuisance, really.  Especially when they get into the crops.  They trample everything.”

It was surreal for Levi to hear titans being talked about as though they were common pests, inconvenient like locusts or termites.  It was also somehow surprising to learn the centaurs farmed crops.  He had been assuming they just sort of… grazed.

“It’s up ahead here,” Eren said.

“What is?”

“The best spot I know to watch the sunset.”

Eren did not make claims lightly, Levi thought as the trees around them suddenly thinned and they were near the edge of a cliff.  Far below them, the forest spread out across the earth stretching off towards the horizon.  On either side of them the cliffs rose and fell sporadically, great juts of rock piercing up from the ground.

“This cliff sticks out the furthest, so the view isn’t blocked,” Eren said, eyes cast towards the horizon where the sun was about to sink.

“More defensible,” Levi commented, the soldier in him noticed.

Eren made a hum of acknowledgment and settled himself down on the ground to watch.

Levi took his cloak off to spread over the grass before seating himself on it next to Eren. 

The sunset was beautiful, they all were, but Levi rarely had the opportunity to appreciate them.  It was nice, being able to watch it with Eren without having anywhere he needed to be or anything he needed to do.

As the light faded from the sky, Levi glanced over, once again struck by Eren’s features.  From the waist up he was extremely attractive and Levi once again felt that weird conflict.

“You know, when I first saw you fighting that titan, I couldn’t help but think you were really cool,” Eren said, causing Levi’s heart to skip, “Then you landed and I was confused.  I thought humans were usually taller, not by much… granted, I had never seen a _real_ human before…”

“Eren,” Levi interrupted.

“Hm?”

“Shut up.”

The centaur looked over at him, saw the vague irritation, and laughed.

-

It was two days later that Levi and Grisha zeroed in on a location that seemed to match Levi’s descriptions.

“These maps are quite old,” Grisha had explained, “Many of them have existed since before the titans appeared and most are incomplete or riddled with inaccuracies.”

Even so, they had managed to find two rivers that intersected as Levi had described that was likely the inner heart of where the walls now resided.  There were fewer and smaller forested areas on the map than what Levi recalled, but the overall topography seemed to match.

“We’ll send out some of our people to scout and see if they can find your walls.  I’m sure you and I can agree that it would be best for you to not wander around out there until we have a solid destination.”

Levi couldn’t argue with that.

Eren still spent the nights next to him, telling Levi stories of centaur lore, which was weird as fuck. 

It was one such night where Levi and Eren were near the edge of the cliff after the sun had set, staring up at the sparkle of stars above.  Eren was idly weaving stalks of grass together with no real skill and Levi found his gaze lingering on those long tan fingers as they nimbly twisted around each other.   

“Say Eren, how old are you?”

“I’ve been alive for four flowerings of the dasinki plant.”

_What the fuck did that mean?_

“Oh,” Levi said, because what else could he say?  He let his eyes roam over the top half of the young man next to him, gaze firmly above the waist.  This was getting complicated.

-

Levi felt the shudder of the building, heard the rumble of tumbling stones and was leaping out of bed and reaching for his blades before he was even fully awake.  When his hands failed to grasp anything remotely like a weapon, was when he fully woke up.  His gear was in shambles in the workshop below.

“What is that?” he heard Eren ask as he raced over to the nearest window to peer down into the courtyard. 

There, in the middle of the grounds was a ten-meter titan, slowly ambling towards the barn, large eyes locked on the window Levi was looking out of.  Its gaze on Levi, it started to run towards the building, arms flying out to the sides, uncoordinated.  On the ground around it, the centaurs were galloping in front and stringing a length of rope across the charging titan’s path.  He watched them pull it taut, two on each side.  The titan ran into the line, ankle hooking and for a moment Levi thought it would fail, the rope dragging the clinging centaurs.  Their hooves slid across the ground as they strained to keep hold of the line.  Then the titan was toppling onto its face and another group of centaurs galloped up its body armed with old swords and spears.

He was nudged to the side slightly as Eren appeared next to him to get a look at what was going on, shoulders pressed together.

The centaurs on the ground made short work of the titan, its smoking carcass quickly deteriorating.

“I suppose they can sense you’re here,” Eren commented when it was over.

“Yeah,” Levi said, eyeing the centaur that trotted into the courtyard, glaring at the mess of a collapsed wall that the titan had entered through before his spectacled gaze shot to the window Levi was looking out of.

Zeke was not thrilled.

-

“Why does he hate humans?  I got the impression that none of you had actually seen one of us before.”

It was a question Levi had been tossing back and forth ever since his first encounter with the older centaur.  Zeke’s animosity didn’t make much sense if he really hadn’t met any humans.  It’s difficult to be wronged by something you hadn’t encountered before.

“If it makes you feel better, he doesn’t care much for me, either,” Eren said, picking idly at his nails.  Levi glanced towards the young centaur as he leaned against the newly repaired wall that Levi was sitting on.

“Why’s that?”

“Because I can transform into a human,” Eren said absently.

 _What_?

Levi gaped at him.  He quickly shot a look over to the other centaurs present, the group lazing about now that they had finished fixing the wall.  None of their expressions suggested this was an unusual thing for Eren to claim.  He eyed the brunet again.

“What?”

“I can turn into a human,” Eren repeated seriously, locking his gaze with Levi’s.

“Show him, Jaeger!” Ymir urged with a catcall.  Levi had decided she was the type of centaur who delighted in stirring up trouble.  Eren glanced at her and looked around at the others, who were silently watching the exchange.  Reiner had a smirk on his face next to Bertolt’s shaky smile.  Annie’s expression gave nothing away.

Eren shrugged and cantered away from the group a few feet before swinging his horse body around so he was facing Levi head on.  He stared at the scout unblinking as he raised his hand to his mouth and bit down hard.  Blood spurted and Levi winced internally.  Then there was a crack in the air like a gunshot and a burst of heat and light that had the captain squeezing his eyes shut.

When he blinked past the spots in his vision, Eren stood there on two human legs.  Levi gaped open-mouthed, eyes travelling up long, bare legs and… Eren was completely naked.

Levi flushed and turned away.  He could hear Ymir snickering.

“For fuck’s sake, if you’re going to walk around like that, put some pants on.”

“Do I look like I have any pants right now to put on?”

No, why would he?  He normally walked around as half a horse.

Levi huffed out a breath and shrugged out of his short jacket, wordlessly holding it out for Eren to grab, refusing to look at the young man until he was covered.  He heard the soft pad of feet move closer and a put upon sigh when the jacket was tugged out of his grip. 

“There, is that better?”

Levi turned back to look to see that Eren had tied the garment around his waist so that the back hung down to cover his rear, but his genitals were still fully exposed.  The captain slapped his hand to his face.  It was not better.  It was somehow worse. 

“No,” Levi said like he was going to continue speaking, then realized he did not possess the words the explain it.

Ymir burst out into a full cackle.

“There’s just no pleasing you, is there?” Eren huffed.

-

Later, after Grisha had come upon his son in his human form and casually naked in front of a very red-faced scout, the older centaur had produced a pair of cloth pants for his son.  He had tried to explain to his son that human sensitivities towards nudity were not the same as centaurs.  Levi could tell that Eren hadn’t really understood, but grudgingly put the pants on anyway, much to Levi’s relief.

Now, the captain once again found himself trailing after Eren through the woods inside the centaurs’ grounds.  It was nearing dusk, but there was still enough light for Levi to shamefully appreciate walking behind Eren and not have to forcefully keep his gaze above the waist.  Eren was still shirtless but it was less awkward to admire him with a fully human body.

When he had asked how it was possible for Eren to transform, he had gotten a shrug from Eren and a steady hand on his shoulder from Grisha, telling him it was a story for another time. 

Levi didn’t understand centaurs.

Eren led him to a clearing in the forest filled with wildflowers.  Just offset of the center was a large boulder rising above the colored petals.  It wasn’t something Levi had ever seen much of nor was it something he would have had the time or the luxury to admire normally.  Eren waded through the flowers until he reached the boulder, climbing up it with surprising agility for someone who didn’t normally have two legs.

Levi followed him up and for a while, they just sat there staring at the small field, watching the breeze tousle the flowers.  It wasn’t long before the stars started to prick the canvas of the sky and Eren laid back on the hard surface to stare up at it.

The moon was nearly full, dim rays of light falling down on them and Levi found himself entranced with the sight of Eren lying next to him.  When green eyes slid up to meet his, glittering and nearly black under the evening veil, Levi leaned forward, magnetically pulled.

He brushed his lips softly against Eren’s, feeling the startle through the body beneath.  He pulled back no more than a breath, gaze locking on wide eyes.

“Why?” Eren asked, breath hitched.

“Did you not like it?”

“I liked it,” Eren hastily answered.

Levi felt the smile stretch across his face.  “Do you want me to show you more?” he asked, voice low and darkly tempting.

“Yes,” Eren breathed and Levi wasted no time in covering the young man’s body with his own.

-

The next morning Levi awoke stiff and cold, but with a warm weight pressed against one side.  He sat up with several pops of his spine, smiling gently as he heard the grumbling from the other body.  He leant down to press a soft kiss on the cheek of the young man who was blinking drowsily. 

“Morning,” he said, his tone gruff with the vestiges of sleep.

“Mmph,” Eren responded, pushing away at Levi’s chest and yawning.  The scout chuckled and began to look for his pants, which had been stripped off enthusiastically the previous night.

Eren was sitting up by the time Levi had found them and was pulling them on.

“How come it’s okay for you to see me naked, now?” the young man asked, watching the captain confusedly.

“Ah, well…” Levi stumbled, trying to think how to explain it.  “Nudity isn’t something that’s meant for public.”

“So what is it meant for?  When is it okay?” The furrow between his brows was decidedly endearing.

“Bathing and privately between two people who…” he faltered.

“When you do what we did?” Eren asked.

“Yes.”

“So, by human standards, it’s okay for me to be naked if it’s just you and me?  Or me and Reiner?  Or Annie?”

Levi blanched.  Maybe he shouldn’t have let his libido get the best of him.  Eren clearly didn’t understand the gravity of what had passed between them.  He clicked his tongue against his teeth as he thought.

“No, you shouldn’t be naked in front of just anyone.”

“I don’t understand the rules,” Eren confessed.

“What we did, you only do with someone… special,” Levi explained, blushing furiously with the last word.  Eren eyed him curiously.

“Why are you embarrassed?  What makes me special?”

He chose to ignore the first question in favor of answering the second, “You’re special because I like you.  More than I like the others.”

“Because I can turn into a human?”

What?

“No, no.  How does it work with centaurs?  Mating, I mean.”

“Not that different from humans, apparently,” Eren shrugged.  Levi calmed down a little.  He was starting to really grow concerned about how badly he had defiled the currently human centaur.  He chose to let the subject drop.  He wasn’t sure how to explain what he wanted to or how relationships even functioned between centaurs.

-

Once they had finished redressing they returned to the workshop.  Grisha took one look at them and gave a beleaguered sigh.

“I suppose you two enjoyed your night.”

Levi immediately stiffened, face draining of color.  _How did he know?_

Eren ignored the jab, walking over to the table where the maps were spread out.  Grisha seemed to remember something as Eren traced the line of a river, hand smoothing the worn paper.

“Ah, we found your walls!” Grisha announced and Levi was surprised to feel a mixture of relief and disappointment.  His gaze fell to Eren who was looking at his father with interest.

“So Levi can go home?”

“Yes, unless he has some reason to stay,” Grisha said, looking at Levi pointedly.  The captain had the decency to look chastised. 

Eren turned to look at Levi curiously, as if trying to determine for himself what reason Levi could possibly have for sticking around.  Levi found himself sucked into that questioning gaze, unable to break away.

Grisha sighed again.

“Eren, could you excuse us for a moment?”

Eren looked back and forth between Levi and his father before nodding uncertainly and exiting the workshop.

“It’s unfortunate that you’ve developed feelings for my son,” Grisha began, removing his glasses to rub at the bridge of his nose and replacing them again.  “He’s actually quite intelligent when it comes to most things but I’m afraid when it’s matters of the heart, he’s a complete moron.”

So maybe the conversational difficulties of the morning were less to do with differences between humans and centaurs and more to do with his choice of partner.

“If you truly have an interest in him, you’ll have to be very blunt and forthcoming.”

Those were actually things Levi excelled in.  He began to nod in understanding before Grisha’s words caught up to him.

“Are you giving me your blessing?”

“I suppose.  You’ve seemed taken enough with my son from the moment I met you.”  Levi blanched again for who knew how many times that morning. “However, I imagine he will volunteer to escort you home, his curiosity about humans will likely get the better of him.”

“You’re not worried about sending him off?”

“He’s old enough to make his own decisions,” Grisha answered.

“And… how old is that?” Levi asked cautiously.  Grisha frowned to himself reaching up to stroke the hair on his chin. 

“Let’s see, I believe he’s been alive for four flowerings of the dasinki plant.”

Figured.

_-_

“You sure you have enough food for the trip?” Grisha asked, tightening the age-spotted saddle that was looped over his son’s back.

“Yes.  Levi helped me pack it,” Eren said, reaching back to adjust a saddlebag. 

Grisha finished with the straps and turned to the scout.

“He likes to get into trouble,” the father warned.  Levi noticed it was not a request to keep Eren from it, however.

“I’ll keep an eye on him.”

Grisha gave him a long look and then nodded, cantering back to allow Levi room to swing up into the saddle.  He looked around at the courtyard, a part of him still trying to reconcile the idea that he did not hit his head and dreamed it all up.  His eyes fell on Zeke, glaring at him from the door of the workshop, clearly glad to see him go.  He gave a mock salute before turning his attention back to his small entourage.  Ymir had his broken gear strapped to her back, while Reiner had a long coil of rope around his waist and a sword strapped along the length of his Clydesdale form.  Bertolt also had a sword and looked anxious about it.  Annie looked uninterested.

With a brief farewell to Grisha and a thanks for the hospitality, they set off down the narrow path that led into the greater forest.

-  
When the walls were finally in sight, Levi was able to breathe easier for the first time since his gear had malfunctioned.  Their journey back had encountered titans, but the centaurs were easily able to outrun them.  In fact, the seemed to have a knack for detecting them, the group silently angling their path away before Levi’s senses were properly aware of the threat.

To say the guards of the Garrison troops were shocked were an understatement when Levi rocked up on the back of a young man that was half horse with four of his friends.  The guards stared slack jawed and moved mechanically to shut the gate behind them, looking every bit as stupid as Levi was sure he himself had appeared when he first met Eren.

Ymir did not bother to hide her amusement.

The result was much the same with Levi’s arrival at the Scouting Legion headquarters.  Levi’s favorite reaction was probably Erwin’s.  It was the first time Levi had ever seen the blond man in a situation he couldn’t have possibly predicted.  Levi had found him sitting at his desk sometime afterwards, staring into the distance, unmoving.

Hange looked at Levi like he had just made all her dreams come true when she met his company.  She had wasted no time in assaulting them with questions faster than they could respond.  Annie had trotted away rather than listen and Levi suspected that Ymir flat-out lied when she finally gave answers, judging by the grin on her face.

Mike had ambled up to do his creepy sniff test only to widen his eyes in surprise when Reiner sniffed him back.

However, that was nothing compared to Eren slipping out of his saddle by transforming into a human and then nakedly leaning on the captain’s shoulder.

Levi’s request for pants was instant. 

-

When Eren followed Levi to his quarters that night to sleep and maybe more, the captain did his best to ignore the strangled sound from Auruo and the view of Petra’s blush as her eyes widened in realization.  After the murmurs reached Erwin’s ears, the commander used the key to the locked drawer in his desk and pulled out a twelve-year bottle of scotch.  Mike joined him shortly.

_-_

“Well Levi, you certainly outdid yourself this time,” Hange said, one foot propped up on a square bale of hay.  The sun was beating down heavily outside the sheltered roof of the stable as Levi looked over his horse that had managed to survive his encounter with the titan, the regular kind of horse, not his half-human kind. “Disappearing into the wilderness on the back of a titan only to return triumphantly with a centaur boyfriend.  A cute one at that.  Young, too, I think.  So does it count as bestiality?”

Levi was long past the point of commenting on the situation other than to say, “I’m not sure if he really understands the concept of dating.”

“Oh?” Hange asked sidling closer.  He didn’t need to look at her face to know her eyebrows had crawled up her forehead in a request for details.  As if summoned by the subject, Eren cantered up in centaur form eyeing Levi’s horse with interest. 

“Does it seem like she’s favoring her left foreleg?” Levi wondered aloud, not to anyone in particular.

Hange peered closer than turned to Eren, “Say Eren, can you maybe speak with her and see if anything’s wrong?”

“Do I _look_ like I can speak to horses?”  Levi turned around to give Eren a onceover.  Was this a trick question?  It seemed like a trick question.

“Uh, well…” Hange faltered, clearly wanting to say ‘yes’ and knowing it was the wrong answer. “No, um, that was a stupid thing to ask.”

For his part, Eren ignored her backpedaling, instead focusing his attention on the scout crouched by his horse.

“Hey Levi, can I talk to you?”  The man in question slid his eyes to Hange an unspoken conversation passing between them.  Without another word, the researcher pushed herself away from the wall of the stables and left, giving a pat to Eren’s flank as she passed.

“What’s up?” Levi asked, straightening to his full height, not that it was much.

“Reiner and the others are going to head back tomorrow.”

“I see…” he said, slowly.  “Reiner and the others?  You’re not going with?”

“I thought maybe,” Eren paused, fingers tracing up the vertical beam of wood framing the wide door of the stable, his eyes following the path of his hand. “…maybe I might stick around for a little longer.  They said they wanted to come back in a few weeks, ogle humans some more, make fun of your idiotic customs.  I’d probably go back home then.  For a while.”

“Awhile.”

“Yeah.” His gaze shot to Levi’s, steady.

“Are you trying to tell me you’re going to make a habit out of running out on me only to come back every few weeks?” Levi asked, lips twitching up at the corner.

“Basically.  You got a problem with that?”

Levi stepped forward and Eren raised his hand to his mouth.  By this time, the scout knew to close his eyes in advance against the blast, forearm thrown across his face.

After the telltale whip crack of sound which did surprisingly little to startle the horse at his back he lowered his arm and started to open his eyes only to feel a firm press of lips against his own.

When the kiss ended, Levi breathed out against a full mouth, millimeters away, “No.  No problem.”

“Good,” Eren replied, smiling at him.  Then his viridian eyes lit up, “Do you think you can let me try the 3DM gear?”

“Why, you want to try fighting titans?”

“Not like there’s a lot of risk.  They don’t pay attention to me no matter what form I’m in.”

“Is that a fact?” Levi asked, mind still a little hazy from the proximity of the naked young man.

“Yeah.  So how ‘bout it?”

“It’s a date.”

**Author's Note:**

> This has been a year in the making. Honestly. I first had the idea nearly a year ago. I resisted for months, but it kept popping back into my head, so I began torturedly writing a few paragraphs at a time. The mental conversation went like this:
> 
> Me: I see a lot of supernatural SnK fics, maybe I should try writing one.  
> Moron Me: Yeah, you should.  
> Me: Maybe vampires or werewo-  
> Moron Me: Centaurs.  
> Me: ...uh...  
> Moron Me: Do it, it'll be awesome.  
> Me: No, I don't really want to.  
> Moron Me: No trust me, you can't go wrong.


End file.
